Alright so I finished my first week of volunteer stuff and the Children's Cultural Center and the local Orphanage. Man am I exhausted. Kids have aloooot of energy, who knew?
In the Cultural Center I have been helping with the gym class. But on Wednesday and Thursday the teacher didn't come and I had to control the class myself. Now, a big group of 9 year olds is hard enough to control, but then you add in the language barrier... and well, its hell. I spend most of the class lifting the kids up, and flipping them around the gymnastics high bar, which is a work out for me as well. Especially when the kid is a bit on the chunky side! The second gym class is for older kids, and there really isn't anything for me to do in that class. Most of the older boys can handle the rings or high bar better than I ever will.
I also started working in the orphanage my grandmother was raised in. She came with me my first day. We were waiting in the foyer for the director and then started hearing screaming. The front doors opened and three grown women were having to drag a young girl into the place. She was bleeding profusously from the mouth and nose and screaming the whole time. She was saying she didn't want to go anywhere and was crying that she had no mom or dad. All the while I was standing a few feet from her having no idea what to do. The women managed to pick her up and drag her inside. So it was pretty nervous to begin with and this certainly didn't help. My grandmother said the place had changed alot, she told me horror stories about it when she was there.
The girls there seemed curious about me and engaged me in conversation whenever I was around. When homework time started, I had a chance to take a look at the math they were doing and realized I don't remember any of that stuff! Algebra was yeeeaaars ago for me. Damnit. But then I found a girl working on her English homework and I sat and helped her out. Whew. Some of the girls then took me to a folklore music festival in which they were performing in their local school. It was a competition of sorts between the different grade levels, and each grade had a musical and dance performance. It was usually about 20 or so students playing the zampoña (pan flute), and one or two on the guitar and drums. There was also a traditional costume competition. I wish I had brought my camera. It was a cool experience... I want to learn to play the zampoña now.
Whining moment: so I brought the 3rd through 5th seasons of 24 on DVD with me, and I've just finished watching all of them :( I looked forward to watching the adventures of Jack Bauer every night before I went to bed, and now its all over.... OVER! So if you know of another addicting show I can get on DVD let me know (no I've seen Heroes so don't suggest it!)
